Scuffed grain

[Haggy]

This 11 inch bowl was turned this weekend from a branch that had blown down in the wind. It was 'double turned' after being seasoned in the micro-wave oven. 
To be honest, I was practising the turning method demonstrated in the 'Lets teach turning' DVD.  The bit that puzzles me however is the scuffed grain (arrowed).
There was no tool bounce that I was aware of -I was aiming to finish the bowl with the gouge.  The bowl wasn't warped either- it was running true.  The grain behaved as if you were planing a knot ( end grain) on a flat board- smooth on one side and scuffed on the other, yet my problem occurred on side grain.  Can anyone make sense of this?
        Regards
                  Haggy

[fuzzyturns]

The picture is actually not quite big enough to see the detail of the problem. Maybe you could take a real close-up and add it to the post?

[seventhdevil]

if that is walnut? then they are just the two points where you go against the grain and will tear rather than cut. there are very few woods that you can get away with finishing with the gouge and have zero tear out.

[Paul Hannaby]

It looks like the two areas marked are just before you get to the side grain sections and that's typically where you will see tearout. Try resharpening the gouge and taking light cuts (followed by very light cuts!) to finish. With difficult woods it often helps to adjust the way the gouge is presented to the wood to get more of a slicing cut.

[z3ddie]

I am new to turning so spend far too many idle hours on Youtube looking at how the pro's do it - I do recall an American chap (Capt. Eddie Castelin ) explaining that when it happens to turn the speed up as your are getting such a fine 'bounce'  you cant feel it and if you keep going over it at the same speed you will only make it worse. He also said to try cutting instead of scraping. Tried finding it to respost but he has hundreds up there

[GBF]

You need to work on your tooling technique

Regards George

[Eric Harvey]

looks like classic end grain tear out,what you need to sharpen your tool/tools on the final finishing cut/cuts even if it looks sharp and feels sharp and take cuts that give you that superfine spidersweb shavings,you might need to go back to the sharpener to keep the tool`s edge as it depends how deep the tear out is,I hope this helps,cheers,

Eric.

[fuzzyturns]

Sorry Eric, but this cannot possibly the classic end grain tear out, as it is at a place where you are cutting with the grain and not against it.
Haggy: you don't say what wood this is. It looks to me like wild cherry or walnut. The strong contrast in colour between heartwood and sapwood probably also indicates a strong difference in hardness/density. In cases like this, if you put pressure of the tool against the work piece, then at those places where it comes off the dense heart wood, the tool will move into the softer sapwood, only to bounce back, and then you get these patches.
George is right: work on your tool technique. The only real pressure you should apply is to hold the tool down on the rest. Make sure your tool rest is as smooth as possible, the tool sharp as possible and then take fine cuts, without any pressure at all against the work piece, and try and present the tool so that it performs a slicing action.
You could also try to use a freshly ground scraper, the type with the rotating tool tip, and do a shear scrape. If you have a nice, even burr on that tip, it will actually perform a shear cut more than a scrape and that should do the trick.

[Eric Harvey]

fuzzy,
 your opinion is noted,but its still on end grain and it doesn`t matter wether its cutting with or against,its STILL cutting across end grain not side grain and this happens on some woods more often if they are going soft where they are spalted/rotten or green and soft before they are properly seasoned.

[Haggy]

Thank you for your help, particularly to 'fuzzyturns'.  I have taken another close up of the problem and the tree as asked- I think it is wild cherry too.
I have kept another piece of of this wood and am now better equipped with knowledge to try again.  The scuffed grain didn't reveal itself until I oiled the wood.  Thanks for trying to find the video link z3eddie, I will try adjusting the lathe speed as well as my technique   I have suffered with tool bounce in the past, but this problem  is new to me.
     Regards
       Haggy

[fuzzyturns]

Hmm, I cannot tell from the picture what tree this is. The bark doesn't look like cherry, but it could be walnut. OTOH, I can't see details of the leaves, so the old saying goes: I used to undecided, but now I am not so sure. If you want a better answer, let us see a close-up of a leaf.
It is often the case that when you start putting the finish on, then all the little problems become visible as they are exposed. I don't think you are alone in that (I certainly am very familiar with this). There is only really one thing you can do: back on the lathe, fine cuts or loads of sanding. Since you now have oil on the surface, you should be able to tell whether you are making progress. I personally would recommend to put some sanding sealer on first. That also exposes the flaws, but it helps in several ways:
a) It saves on oil (and generally sanding sealer is cheaper than oil)
b) It stabilizes the surface. It won't stabilize wood that has gone punky (you'll need something stronger for that), but it does help with sanding and cutting on very soft wood
c) It reduces the amount of breathing the wood will do. Unless your work piece was already at less than 10% moisture content, it will probably move. Not a big deal for a bowl, but it doesn't help when you want to do some more work on it.

[GBF]

If you are using Oil as a finish don't put sanding sealer on it stops the oil from penetrating.

Regards George

[Haggy]

Thanks Fuzzyturns and George- I've posted a couple of images that may help identify the timber that has given
grief- I will take on board your advice and look to use a scraper if I can't get the desired finish. I can understand why you think it is end grain Eric, but if you look carefully it is side grain and that is why I have found this so intriguing.  I now have plenty to go at when  I come against a similar problem- thank you for your help.
        Haggy

[Ryan Davenport AWGB]

Try taking a picture of a single leaf on a white background, I then should hopefully be able to tell you what wood it is for sure including the Latin species.
Happy turning

[Graham]

The leaves look very much like a Victoria Plum tree I cut down yesterday.